TioT's Garden

Hello, the current challenge at Try it on Tuesday is 'In My Garden' and I took the opportunity to ink up another flower, this time I've used Tim Holtz's Flower Garden stamps.

I stamped onto watercolour paper and fussy cut the flowers and coloured them with Distress inks, adding a few stamped and fussy cut leaves.  The sentiment is Tim Holtz and heat embossed with white EP.

You still have one more week if you join the challenge and all the details can be found here.

Have a great day,
Avril xx

Lessons for Life

Hello, I don't know about you, but I'm a bit of a messy crafter.  However,  fortunately for the craft room, my friend comes over most Thursdays and I have to tidy to make room for her which means the 'box of bits' keeps getting bigger. I try to use them up from time to time and always feel good if I can make a dent - no matter how small, so here goes...

This crackle background was the 'try' when I first got DecoArt Crackle Paint, applying different thicknesses and after drying this was too good to throw, so in the box it went.  I've now used Distress Sprays Tumbled Glass and Chipped Sapphire and just left it to dry in the cracks and added some stencilling for interest.  These sentiments  had been stamped for something else, so I cut them apart and rearranged and also cut apart my little Paper doll boy as his friend/brother looked a bit timid for what I had in mind.  He reminds me of my son, not in looks but whenever we took a picture of him and said 'smile' he always stood to attention!

I am going to enter this at Tag Tuesday as their theme is Use Your Scraps.

Have a lovely day,

Avril xx

Don't Drive Too Fast!

Hello, I'm over on the Artistic Outpost Blog today with another masculine card, for all the details, please pop over.

Avril xx

In My Garden at TioT

Hello, it's time to tell you about the new challenge at Try it on Tuesday and for this fortnight it's   'In My Garden'  

I decided to use my new Paper Artsy Kay Carley stamps.  I stamped with Black Archival and heat set with Clear EP,  I also stamped a couple of masks on post-it notes so I could layer the flowers.  Leaving the masks in place, I coloured the background with Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and Broken China and then sprinkled on PA Infusions In the Navy.  Unfortunately a little of the Infusions sneaked under the mask, but after colouring the flowers, it didn't really spoil.  The sentiment is from a Jofy set.

It would be lovely to see what's in your garden, so why not join in.  The rest of the DT have some great inspiration for you, so please pop over to the main blog, where you'll also find all the details.

Thanks for calling in,
Avril xx

Use Your Inks at Fashionable Stamping

Hello, it's time for a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping and this time Dot has chosen 'Use Your Inks' and you can use them anyway as long as you use them to stamp as well.
The prize for the Lucky random winner will be a stamp from our Sponsor Ink Art Designs.

For the background of my card I took inspiration from Brenda who made this tag a while ago.  I loved the background, and as I've had this stamp from Crafty Individuals for quite a while (un-inked), thought it might be something to try for my  'inky'  piece.  I used Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass and Shaded Lilac  and Stormy Sky DIs and spritzed and dripped with water.   Then stamped randomly using two colours,  I used Frayed Burlap and Dusty Concord.

My butterfly was stamped with Black Archival and I watercoloured with Fossilized Amber DI, when it was dry I applied a little Frosted Lace stickles and rubbed over with my finger, which just left a feint shimmer.  I decided on the position of  the butterfly and then stamped the antennae with black so that I didn't have to fussy cut this part.  I masked off part of the sentiment and again stamped with the two inks.

The base layer was distressed with inks and then a script stamp using Frayed Burlap.

The rest of the Design Team have some wonderful inspiration for you, so please pop over to the main blog, where you will also find all the challenge details.

I am entering this at:
  Penny Black and More - All Creatures Great and Small
  Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes
  Emerald City Crafts - Anything Goes

And just for fun - I decided to used similar colours to Brenda's tag, love how this turned out too.

Thanks for calling in, have a great day,
Avril xx

Why Fit In?

Hello, I'm over on the Artistic Outpost blog with another masculine card and if you'd like to find out all the details, please pop over.

Avril xx

A Post Card for TioT

Hello and thanks for calling in today, I've got another card to share and to remind you that you still have another week left to join in the Post Card( Mail Art) challenge at Try it on Tuesday.

I've had this image for  a couple of years - one of those just had to have stamps, but it hasn't bee inked up very often, so this was a good opportunity, I've stamped it twice, but only coloured the top rose with Aged Mahogany  Distress ink, both layers were dipped in Vintage Photo Oxide ink.  The DP was sent to me by my lovely friend Chrissie and was just perfect for this card.  The sentiment came free with a magazine.

Well I've got my fingers crossed for a better week, we had no internet last weekend and then I've had major computer problems, but with a little help from DD, which at first didn't seem to solve anything, it's now behaving,  so with some luck we'll get back to normal.

Have a great day whatever you're doing,
Avril xx